While most youth (82%) agree that girls and boys are equally good at being leaders, 52% also agree that “girls have to work harder than boys in order to gain positions of leadership.” (Source: GSUSA, Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership (2008))

Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois has been invited to join Girl Scouts of the USA, the Lean In Foundation, and the new “BanBossy” campaign to investigate barriers to girls’ leadership, specifically the impact of the word “bossy” on girls’ desire to become leaders.

Are girls more likely than boys to be called “bossy”?

Do girls think that other girls are more bossy than boys?

Has this turned them away from leadership opportunities?

What other word(s) might be better to describe female leaders?

These are some of the questions that our local girls will have the opportunity to share their voice about. From January 29-February 7, up to 75 girls, ages 11-17, from GSEIWI will be randomly selected and invited to participate in a short national poll.

One Response to The BanBossy Campaign

How ridiculous. You indicate that “52% also agree that “girls have to work harder than boys in order to gain positions of leadership.” That’s about half. That means that 48% of boys have to work harder than girls to obtain positions of leadership, based on that statistic. Moreover, being “bossy” is not restricted to just girls. Boys can be bossy too. And if a teacher calls a girl bossy but calls a boy “a leader” for the exact same action, that’s ridiculous too. Banning the word doesn’t solve anything, but somehow… I suspect you already know that. It’s all about “opening a conversation” by making a ridiculous statement these days, isn’t it?